Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

Non-disclosure issues in 2017 and 2018 that caused cases to be dropped

Request

1. How many prosecution cases were dropped due to non-disclosure issues in 2017 and 2018?

2. How many cases did the CCRC refer to the Appeal Court in 2017 and 2018?

3. How many applications were made to the CCRC in 2017 and 2018 for appeals?

Response

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds data which shows the numbers of prosecutions that have been stopped due to an issue with disclosure. Data for financial year 2017 up to October 2018 is held within the table attached 'Disclosure issues with CPS or Police.' This is the reason used when we are unable to meet our disclosure obligations or have failed to do so. The data only includes cases where the CPS or police have not met their disclosure obligations or were unable to do so. This metric takes a narrow definition of disclosure, and requires disclosure to have failed to occur and this being reason why the case being stopped.

Data for November and December 2018 is due to be published in accordance with CPS policy and is exempt from disclosure under section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act - Information intended for future publication. Please see the attached section 17 notice for an explanation of this exemption.

We have interpreted CCRC to be the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The CPS is unable to provide responses to Questions two and three of your request. The CCRC website may provide you with more information. You may wish to make a request for information via the link and/or postal address as below:

https://ccrc.gov.uk/